


Enemies Among Us

by stealyourshiny



Category: Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Dragon Age II
Genre: Dragon Age Secret Santa 2011, Gen, Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-30
Updated: 2011-12-30
Packaged: 2017-10-28 12:45:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/308010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stealyourshiny/pseuds/stealyourshiny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Journal Entry of Hawke's - what really happened with Tarohne.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [davey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/davey/gifts).



> I tried to write this in the first person style of someone who isn't very good at writing stories and is just trying to get the facts out on paper, sorry for any disjointedness (though I think that works for it). :D

_ The Journal of Garrett Hawke,   
9:34 Dragon, 17 Cloudreach. _

~~ It was a few weeks ~~

~~ It all started ~~

I am not sure where to begin. This is a difficult thing to write, but I know that this tale will never be told by Varric. Not after what we saw. The world isn’t ready for it. I don’t think I’m ready for it. I need to get it out though. Somewhere. Maybe by writing this down, I can release whatever demon has lodged itself in my memory, taunting me with these horrors.

Though I have never met a demon that ever looked or felt like that. Demons I understand. I have fought them, they are easy to predict. This...

I am babbling. How silly is that? Babbling in my own journal. 

The facts are these: there was a blood mage in the Rose. She directed us to other blood mages, but they were not doing what she thought they were. This... cult that they had built. These ‘Old Ones’ they were worshipping, and the words they kept saying over and over again.

I can’t get it out of my head. It’s almost painful. It was something so horrible that Justice almost went mad.

Anders is sleeping now, curled up with Dane under the blankets. As if he needed more nightmares to add to his list.

Now I have a few of my own.

Here I am. Scared to sleep, and scared to even begin to tell the story. As if writing it down will make it more real somehow. Not just a bad dream. Not a nightmare in the Fade. Even then though... The gaping blackness of the maw. The Dreamer in his dreams.

I wonder if a mage could find them. Feynriel perhaps.

They would probably go mad just knowing where He was sleeping.

Perhaps that’s why Kirkwall seems to be the epicenter of all madness. All the blood mages and demons, the murderers and gangs, the dragons and undead... all of it. Maybe it’s because of Him. Maybe it’s because He’s nearby. Waiting. Watching.

Dreaming.   
_  
Cthulhu fhtagn. _


	2. Chapter 2

It began on a spring day. Just after the cold rains and light snows of winter in Kirkwall. So, really the first nice day we’d had in months.

Varric, Isabela, Anders and myself were wandering in Hightown, I had been planning on checking the Chanter’s Board for anything, when we were accosted by a young woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. She seemed harried and upset, and no one seemed to be listening to her pleas for help.

She saw me, and my friends, and the weapons we were carrying and grabbed my arm. She almost seemed to be hysterical, as she begged me to help her find her brother. Keran his name was. A templar recruit. He’d been missing for days and no one would listen to her. The templars wouldn’t tell her anything, and she’d heard rumours about the Knight Commander and some rituals and the way the woman treated mages.

I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about helping a templar, but I knew what it was like to lose your family. I understood the frantic panic that could well up, especially when I didn’t know where Bethany was, and after Carver...

I agreed. Anders had pursed his lips and snorted behind me, but I ignored him.

The girl, Macha by name, told us her brother’s name was Keran and that he had some friends, other recruits in the Gallows that may be able to give me information. They hadn’t been willing to speak with her.

I promised that I would go as soon as I was able to see what I could find out.

As soon as I could ended up being two days later with Varric, Aveline and Anders in tow. I didn’t want to bring him into the Gallows, but he insisted and I couldn’t very well deny him. I had rather he was with me than going by himself, after all.

The three templar recruits in question told me stories about midnight rituals with Meredith and how some of the recruits never came back, and that Meredith was a little unstable in their mind.

I did get a name, however - Wilmod. A templar recruit who had come back after having been gone for days. He was also a friend of Keran’s, but he had immediately gone out of the city again afterward. Apparently a Knight Captain had gone after him.

I was not personally inclined to chase a Knight Captain and a recruit, but every time I walked by Lirene’s shop I’d see Macha standing outside, forlornly looking at everyone who passed, which just made me feel like a horrible person for making her wait.

So, the next morning, I set out. Varric, Isabela, Aveline went with me, as I didn’t think it a good idea to take any mages with me, when we were going to be meeting a templar and possibly a Knight Captain.

Wilmod was hiding near an alcove on the Wounded Coast. We tracked him up there, only to find that the Knight Captain had found him first. This Knight Captain was threatening Wilmod, asking where the other missing recruits were. He hit the kid, and I stepped in.

I should have walked away.

Wilmod stood again, and he was suddenly changed. There was a fire in his eyes and he looked wild, laughing at us.

He spoke words in a language I had never heard before, though I saw Isabela pale as Wilmod recited them. 

Then a portal opened. It was... black. No, not black. It was... nothing. Indescribable. I saw things in that portal to the Void that I had never seen in my dreams; not even my worst Nightmares.

There were...  _things_ . One came through the portal before it closed, and summoned Shades. These I recognised. These were familiar to me. These I attacked first.

The battle was a blur. I remember feeling... nauseous, light-headed. I had problems even looking at the monster that had come through the portal Wilmod had opened. He was still laughing, and chanting something in that strange language. Soon, it was just us and the Monster. Demon. Thing.

The Knight Captain didn’t even hesitate. He used his power of Smite, the white light of the Maker flashing brightly. I could hear the Monster scream in agony. Or rather, it sounded like a scream. Isabela killed it.

I just stared at her, watching her pant, sweat streaming over her face, her eyes dilated and nostrils flaring.

“Help me. We’ll push it into the sea,” she had said, kicking it.

I was thankful that I had gloves on, as the Knight Captain and I dragged the Thing over to the cliff and pushed it off, into the ocean.

The Knight Captain thanked us for our help, and told us what he knew about Wilmod and Keran. Keran was obviously in grave danger, and apparently the signs led to the Blooming Rose. The Knight Captain asked us to look into it for him, as the whores were not forthcoming to a non-paying templar customer.

As we made our way back to Kirkwall, I asked Isabela about the Monster.

“There are some things better left unknown,” she replied, and kept walking. I knew she had been shaken badly by the encounter, and it seemed to me that she knew something we did not, but she was not telling.

When we reached the city, Isabela took her leave, claiming she needed a bath, or something of the like. She didn’t want to go with us to the Blooming Rose - which was a first, and made me all the more wary of our current situation.

I made an appointment to meet Varric and Aveline there the next day, and went home, deciding to take Bethany with me in place of Isabela. I was too tired to go hunting for anyone else.

The dreams I had that night... I don’t remember them, not anymore. It was too long ago.

I just remember waking in a cold sweat, a feeling of abject horror upon me.

When I’d calmed a little, I wrapped myself in the thin blanket I had and went into the common room of Uncle Gamlen’s hovel to sit by the fire with Dane. Whatever I had seen in my dreams... the very idea of trying to go back to sleep made me panic. My breath coming short and sharp, like when one has been running too hard.

I stayed there until the sun rose, and walked with Bethany to the Blooming Rose to meet Varric and Aveline.

Inside, we were informed that Wilmod and Keran both had last seen a lady by the name of “Idunna”. We went up to meet her.

She... was strange. Beautiful, really. Even Aveline was somewhat taken with her. It comes like a fog, but I remember... I remember asking her about Wilmod and Keran. Then the next thing I knew, I had a dagger at my throat - my own dagger, held by my own hand. 

I remember it felt like it was completely natural to just slide the blade across my throat.

I still have a scar, under my ear, where I’d started to press the blade before Bethany managed to break the spell Idunna had cast.

She told us about her master, some woman named Tarohne, who would take the recruits she seduced. Idunna did not seem aware of what Tarohne was doing with them, only that it would strike a blow to the Templars of Kirkwall. She told me where to find Tarohne’s hiding place before Aveline dragged her off to find the nearest templar.


	3. Chapter 3

_9:34 Dragon, 18 Cloudreach_

We didn’t go find Tarohne right away. In fact, I put it off. There was always something more important to do. We were trying to make money for the expedition, after all, and Macha really didn’t have much to pay.

And I feel like an ass writing that down, but it was true.

That, and the Thing that came out of the Void when we fought Wilmod. I admit, I was still terrified. The nightmares had been getting worse, because now that shapeless monster was featuring heavily in it.

I think I can sympathise with Grey Warden nightmares now.

It was three days later that Anders came to my door with Isabela and Varric and Merrill. Macha wasn’t doing so well. Without her brother’s pay she was on the verge of eviction. Lirene was helping her, but she had gone to Anders to talk to him, knowing from Macha that we were supposedly looking for her brother.

Isabela had a grim set to her face. She had not told us anything of the monster we’d pushed into the sea, but her eyes told me she knew more about it than we did.

“They’re the Old Ones,” she told me quietly as we walked toward Darktown. I had asked her what she meant by that, but she shook her head and closed her lips tightly.

Tarohne’s hideaway was difficult to get to. We had to walk through Darktown, then down through one of the mining shafts that led to the network of caves below Kirkwall. Then there was some navigating through the stink and waste.

Spiders and a few desperate bandits were all we encountered at first... Though the closer we got to the blood mages, the worse the stink got.

Merrill stopped at one point as we got closer, gasping in horror at a body that had been pushed to one side of the path. She turned away, retching, her eyes closed.

I didn’t go look, but Anders told me later it had been mutilated beyond recognition, that many of the organs had been removed, and there was a strange, filmy coating over the body, and strange scales on the hands and arms.

I knew when we’d reached the right place. It reeked of death and decay and blood and ocean water. We could hear strange chanting bouncing off the walls, making it difficult to pinpoint where the sounds were coming from.

“ _ Ph'nglui mglw'nafh C'thulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn . _ ”

These were the words I heard bouncing off the walls. If you want to even call them ‘words’. It was obviously a language not meant to be spoken by humans, elves or dwarfs. I’m not even sure the Qunari could wrap their tongue around it.

“ _Maker ne salveze_ ,” Isabela had said, her face pale and her eyes wide.

Anders stopped at the cave mouth while Varric and Merrill went forward. The mage would not budge, and he didn’t even understand why. He seemed... foggy, confused, with edges of Justice just peeking through his skin, as if the Spirit wanted to run from whatever was in front of us as much as Anders did.

I stayed with him, Isabela and I. We couldn’t bring ourselves to move forward, so we waited. Waited for what seemed like hours for Varric and Merrill to come back.

“We’ve found Keran,” Merrill had said, unusually serious.  “If we’re quiet and careful, we can go around the... Temple. Altar. Thing. With the people. To get to him.”

“ **We must destroy it. It is a Blight upon Thedas that needs cleansed before the unthinkable occurs** **.** ” Justice’s voice rang clear in the cave, coming from Anders’ mouth. His eyes were blue and glowing now, as the Spirit steeled itself for what was ahead.

“Yes,” Isabela agreed softly, drawing her daggers with a deep breath.

It becomes a blur after that. Everyone had agreed that we would destroy the thing and rescue Keran. I remember feeling... horror. Pure, abject horror upon entering that room. The ceiling was swirling with stars, as if it were open to the sky, but there was miles of rock and stone and city above us, there was no possible way for the sky to be shown through the cavern ceiling.

And there was something  in the stars. Something so... Something...

_**~There are scribble lines and ink blots on the page, indicating that an attempt to write or draw something was made, but nothing legible.~** _

Tarohne confronted us. She regaled us with her plan to bring the Old Ones back and to use possessed templars as the catalysts. She was frothing mad, and had strange colouring on her hands and neck, it almost looked like scales, as well as her pale face and white lips. Her blood mage followers were all cowled and we cut through them like rags with Justice raining fire and ice upon them.

The battle raged for what seemed an eternity, crazy mage after crazy mage. Cultists with knives and daggers, swords and axes. So many of them.

When they were all dead, I recognised a few sailors that hung around the Hanged Man, others from the Blooming Rose, some refugees from Darktown, mages, and so much blood. I remember hearing Isabela swear and kick some of the bodies, as if she were disappointed in their former owners as she rifled their pockets.

The Altar in the center of the room almost seemed to be pulsing with joy at the carnage before Merrill and Justice both cast Dispel and Stonefist at the thing, destroying it and trying to cleanse the magic from it.

I didn’t dare look up at the ceiling again as Varric led the way to where Keran had been held.

He was disoriented. The last thing he remembered was being at the Blooming Rose with Idunna. Isabela wanted to kill him. She said he may have been infected like Wilmod and they couldn’t take that chance.

I remember Merrill disagreeing with that. Varric seemed neither here nor there, he just wanted to get out of the blighted hole.

It was Justice that went to Keran and cast a weak Spirit Bolt at the young man, who yelped in pain and surprise.

“ **He is safe. If there were a demon, it would defend itself** **,** ” he had said.

We left it at that and climbed out of the stinking cave full of rotting bodies. We returned to the Gallows with Keran - Anders was himself again by the time we got there, though he had a haunted look that wasn’t there previously.

There was no way we could explain what had happened to Cullen without sounding mad, so Varric told him a story of blood mages and possession and that Keran was clean. He left out the... Thing in the sky, and the chanting, and the nightmares.

I thought that was the end of it. We had destroyed the altar and saved the day, as with all things.

So why am I writing about it now, three and an half years later? Why pass this nightmare to page where someone else might find it?

I do not know. I just know that the nightmares are back again. I know that I hear whisperings when I am near the docks, coming from the water. I know that Isabela doesn’t sleep anymore. That Anders’ nightmares are even worse than ever.

And the chanting. The Blighted, Maker damned chanting.

_Cthulhu fhtagn_ .


	4. Chapter 4

**_ ~ Found letter folded into the pages of the journal after the last entry.~ _ **

  
_ Serah Hawke, _

_ Years past, I fell into wickedness and was swept up in the mad ambitions of the blood mage Tarohne. You spared my life at the Blooming Rose, and for many months, I wished you had killed me. But I found the Maker's Light in my deepest despair, and I now seek absolution. _

_ Tarohne had access to many tomes that she used in her mad quest. The Ancient Arcanum translation: Necronomicon; The Wormius Antivan translation; the Ferelden John Dee translation;  The Cultus Maleficarum by the mad Orlesian, Frederic; and finally the Rivain translation by Junz.  _

_ She protected them with demons forged into their very bindings. You must find and destroy these tomes, lest others follow her dark path to the Old Ones. I wish I could help you, but the templars never let me leave my cell. I can only send my prayers. _

_ —Idunna _


End file.
